Opinion: White House declines to lead us out of the domain name desert

By Robert Cannon

Washington D.C. - In the beginning was the Internet. And there was great confusion concerning IP addresses. And it was not good. Thus the U.S. National Science Foundation begat domain names and there came to be a domain name registrar named Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI).

And NSI acted as sole registrar of all domains. And the voices of the people proclaimed that NSI had made the transgressions of greed, of a monopoly, and of a devilish trademark disputes policy. And it was not good.

The Internet Society heard the cries of the people and thus begat the International Ad Hoc Committee, which begat the IAHC domain name plan, which begat the Council of Registrars, which would have begot seven new domains. But the IAHC process was not open, it embedded process deep in bureaucracy, and it was dominated by special interests for it was led by those whose concern was the intellectual property rights of corporate America. And it was not good.

So the controversy around the CORE begat White House intervention. And the White House proclaimed that it would lead the people out of the desert and into to the Promised Land of a new domain name system. And Ira Magaziner, special prophet from the White House, begat the green paper, which would have begat new domain names, principles for future Internet governance, and a private sector organization to take charge of domain names. And the people were happy for they believed that a process had been started that was open, fair and accountable, in which all voices could be heard.

And the green paper begat more than 650 comments from a multitude of voices, much as in Babylon. And the prophet Ira looked over all of the world and over the sea of controversy and the multitude of voices, and said "it is not good." And Ira was perplexed. The people were discordant and the White House was fearful. Ira pondered how to lead these people across the desert of Internet governance and find the promised land. And Ira spoke, saying, "who am I that I should lead these people? I shall not. Where the voices of Babylon speak with one voice, there I shall go. But where the voices of Babylon are discordant, I shall not lead."

And so the White House, on June 5, 1998, begat the White Paper. And the White Paper said that the voices of the people are discordant, and, therefore, the White House shall not lead. But the White House sends the people a helper, a private nonprofit organization incorporated in the U.S., which shall hear the prayers of the people and answer the questions that the White House could not. And the White House gave the people four commandments. The White House proclaimed that the private organization (I) shall be stable, (II) shall be competitive, (III) shall create private, bottom-up coordination, and (IV) shall be representative. And the White House saw a unity of voices on one issue: cybersquatting on domain names (the warehousing or prospecting of domain names in the hopes of future value to third parties, and the subsequent sale of those names to the third parties). The White House commanded that the transgressions of cybersquatters shall be resolved by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

However, there were many commandments not given. The White House said that the word of the private organization shall be final. In this, manner, therefore, the private organization shall not be directly accountable. If it so occurs that a final decision of the private organization harms any one the people, there shall be no further redress. The only accountability is a mystical and undetermined process through which the people can replace and change the board of directors of the organization (but, at times, only if the board of directors is willing).

Commandments of "Internet governance" were also not given. The White House declared that it was only creating commandments that apply to Internet names and addresses, and not a system of Internet governance. Therefore the White House did not respond favorably to those voices who prayed that this new entity recognize such rights as free speech.

But the White House did not wholly turn its face from its people. The White House looked down and saw the ".us" domain, which currently can only be used to create geographic second level domains (such as "virginia.us"). And the White House, finding that this was not good, proclaimed that it would continue to work "to make the .us domain more attractive to commercial users." And the people were confused for they were sure that there were more voices among them than solely commercial users.

And the White Paper was . . . well . . . The voices remained discordant. The voice of the Internet Society, Don Heath, said that it was good and deemed the White Paper a victory for Internet self-governance. The voice of NSI, the current domain name registrar, also joined the choir of praise. But other voices remained discordant. The voice of the Domain Name Rights Coalition testified that the domain name policy continues to be captured by concerns of intellectual property and commerce at the expense of other interests, including free speech, accountability and process.

When the White House decided to lead the people out of the desert, there was hope in the hearts of the people that at last the prayers of all people, not just trademark holders, would be heard and that the DNS would move to the Promised Land. We have heard the word of the White House. The White House has chosen to lead the people across a sand dune, but not out of the desert. The Promised Land holds the hope of new domain names, of stability, of a process not dominated by solely by intellectual property concerns, and of accountable self-governance. But we are not out of the desert yet.

Cannon is the founder of the Internet Telecommunications Project. He can be reached via his Web site at www.cais.net/cannon/ or via e-mail at cannon@dc.net.